The proliferation of waste materials being generated in large quantities by modern technology, particularly hazardous waste materials and toxic and radioactive materials, have created a need for suitable ways in which such materials can be safely stored for long period of time. One manner of storing such materials is to place them in containers that can be buried, and it is essential that such containers be secured and sealed after they are filled so that the toxic or radioactive materials will not leak from the container during storage. Apart from this essential requirement, the containers must also have a removable lid or top to permit filling of the container before it is stored, and problems have been encountered in designing a container which has a removable lid as well as the capacity for positively securing the lid to the container for long-term storage.
One such container designed for this purpose is disclosed in Teague U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,092 which includes a gasket between the container and the lid, and a bracket attached to the side wall of the container. An L-shaped hold down assembly is provided which has one leg that engages the lid and another leg that slides between the bracket and the side wall of the container, the latter leg being formed with a projection that engages the bracket to retain the hold-down assembly in use. To secure the lid in place, the hold-down assembly member is struck with a heavy object such as a hammer to force the projection through the bracket so that it thereafter is more or less permanently engaged by the bracket. A somewhat similar lid fastener is disclosed in Richardson U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,319 in which a generally L-shaped hold-down member has two legs which engage the lid and a bracket assembly secured to the side wall of the container.
In the general container art, it is also known that flexible or resilient members can be used to engage a lid to hold it in place and selectively permit the lid to be easily removed when necessary. For example, in Berfield U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,270,668 and 4,501,378 a vacuum cleaner container is disclosed in which the lid is held in place by a plurality of buckles formed of molded plastic that can be bent or deformed to engage a portion of the lid. Latching construction of this kind must, of course, be designed to permit the latching element to be easily engaged and disengaged from the lid each time the vacuum cleaner is opened to remove collected dirt, and while these latching constructions are suitable for their intended purpose, they would not be suitable for use in conjunction with the lids of hazardous waste containers because the construction could permit inadvertent removal of the lid during transportion and storage of the waste containers.
In accordance with the present invention a locking assembly is provided which is simple in construction and operation, which is relatively inexpensive, and which provides the required permanent-type hold-down capacity for hazardous waste containers.